Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-18

occupation or pastime OF one or more
bands of desperate young men, and
that unless something was immedi-
ately done the entire Republican vote
would he suppressed at the approach
ing elections, and the execution of the
laws entirely suspended.
was at Montgomery at the time,
and the center of the disturbance was
reported to be at Livingston, Sumter
County, on the western borders of the
State. 1t was railroad town, that is,
a line extending from Chattanooga.
Tenn, to Meridian, Miss, passed
through it but the previous winter a
freshet in the Tombigbee river had
carried away bridge, and the opera
ton of the road had been suspended.
reach Livingston from Montgomery
therefore, it was necessary to secure II
private conveyance from the nearest
point on the railroad from Selma to
Meridian, and that was twelve or
fourteen miles. This did by telc-
graphing to Livingston.
The train was "mixed" one, jog
ging along ut a leisurely rate. stopping
at crossroads and cotton plantations
to deliver or receive freight, and Civ
ing the passenger almost as good an
opportunity to examine the country at
his leisure rs if he had walked. The
conductor, or Captain" as he was
called, repeated the stale joke of say
ing that his predecessor had resigned
because he was unwilling to walk
ahead of his train and keep the cattle
off the track; and that he himself had
applied to the company to have shoes
included among the articles OF regular
train equipment. One felt great
deal safer riding over that road slowly
in those days: it was very thoroughly
worn out. After dark | remember
that the negroes in some of the places
at which we stopped were enjoying
themselves with that happy abandon
characteristic OF the race. Sometimes
an old banjo furnished the music for a
lively dance, and loud peals OF laugh
ter rang out on the night air. GER
tainly was not yet in the Ku KluX
country.
The place where left the train was q
"forge in the forcst"- that is, the
only signs of human occupation of the
country were tumble-down, old
blacksmith shop by the side of
the road, and raised platform
to facilitate the loading OF cotton into
freight trains. The night was dark,
and as saw nothing of the princely
equipage l had ordered to meet me,
began to look about for accommoda-
tions for the night. The air was cool 4,
the dew was falling, and the outlook
was not encouraging. l placed my
| portmanteau upon the platform and
started up the sandy road on an ex-
ploring expedition.
l had walked, perhaps, an eighth Of
a mile, when, passing around turn
in the road, | saw Il light ahead, and
at the same time met a negro man,
barefooted and clad only in coarse
shirt, n dilapidated pair of trowsers
and remnant OF an old straw hat.
SIS yo de gemman Boss Reynolds
'spectin ?" he asked, as we stopped
opposite each other in the road.
"Who's Boss Reynolds ?" | asked.
"Don' yer know him ?" was his re-
ply. He runs de hotel up ter Livin-
stun"
"And he sent you down here for
me? Where's your team ?'
"De ole mules up yon at Uncle
Jake's"
He started up the road again at a
lively gait. After some effort made
him understand that had portman-
teau down at the railroad that was too
heavy Tor me to carry up to Uncle
Jake's," and that he would either
have to go back with me for it or drive
, down there with his mule. He chose
the latter alternative, and | returned
to the railroad, where it seemed as
though | waited more than an hour
before that negro appeared with his
mule hitched into an ancient much
bespattered open buggy
For mile the road was sandy, bor-
dered on either side by cotton fields
in which the crop was ready to pick,
or by worn-out lands in which the old
field pines had got good start. My
driver told me that there were cheap
o. dead-falls" about there, and that
the crops were mighty uncertain. A
"deadfall" was store kept by some
unprincipled white or black man, in
which were sold whisky, tobacco and
a few coarse groceries, payment
being received in cotton in the
seed brought after dark. A
temptation was thus provided to dis
honest negroes to steal cotton from
the fields on moonlight nights, and
stealthily sell it at the deadfalls.
"Here," 1 thought, "is possible key
to the reported Ku Klux troubles in
this neighborhood.
The suppression of deadfalls had
been a very serious problem with the
plantt rs of Alabama. The subject
had been before the carpet-bag legis-
lature of the State, and bill making
it crime to purchase or receive cot
ton in the seed'after sunset and before
sunrise, had been defeated. This had
been followed by the shooting of u
good many negroes discovered in cot
ton fields after dark, the killing of
some and the wounding of others.
The deadfalls were subsequently sup
pressed; and, since the introduction
Of the share system OF working plan
tations, the negroes themselves hav-
ing an interest in the crops, the dead
fall species of dishonesty is no more
prevalent or pernicious, | believe,
than its equivalent in ether agricul-
tural districts.
~ Hlllc aiIeI btttTtiuS VIC t!ltcTcu u
dark forest which Bill, the driver,
told me was the Post-oak Woods.
III suppose there must have
been some post-oaks scat
tered among the cypress and other
trees, to have given the name. The
soil was clay, and the road through
the woods-eight or ten miles-had
once been constructed of corduroy"
or logs OF wood laid together at right
angle to the direction Of the road.
This particular piece of corduroy was
the remains OF a former civilization.
Some of the logs were decayed in the
middle, and ever and anon our un-
mbitious mule would go down into
hole, until sometimes feared that he